Cultural brokers: How immigrant youth in multicultural societies navigate and negotiate their pathways to college identities

A crucial indicator of immigrant youth's incorporation in their receiving countries is their educational success, which can open pathways to economic mobility and civic participation. So we are especially concerned about the academic pipeline problem, when disproportionate numbers of immigrant, ethnic minority, and low-income youth leave school prematurely. Scholars trace the roots and remedies of these inequalities with theories of capital, alienation, and challenge. Social capital theories point to cultural reproduction, seen when youth with college-educated parents are the most likely to develop college identities. Alienation theories propose that immigrant parents dream of their children's school success, but poverty and discrimination dim these hopes, while their children develop marginalized identities. Finally, such challenges can motivate youth to succeed on behalf of their families and build college identities by navigating among their cultural worlds. This paper reports two longitudinal studies with U.S.-Mexican immigrant youth and traces parallels and contrasts across nations as well as research–practice–policy linkages, with special attention to how cultural brokers can be resources for opening academic pipelines.